FromOyster…
In October, Senator Vitter said400units were available “right now”. Then the T-P reported as “fact” that“hundreds” of units were available “right now”. Days later, the number of available units “right now” was down to154.Does even that number hold water,
especially in light of DNOPH’s claim that last year HUD acknowledged
that the “250 prepared units…never existed”? Neither the T-P nor the
activists were willing to find out for sure.
Why didn’t
activists press hard on this dubious, evolving HUD number upon which
the T-P based so much of its reporting and editorial opinion? Wasn’t
this a politically exploitable “soft spot”? If the T-P was forced to
retract its false subheading about the “fact” that “hundreds” of units
were available “right now”, and if HUD was shown to be lying about the
154 unit number– a distinct possibility in my view– wouldn’t the
activists be in a very strong position to demand a second opinion on,
say, HUD’s rehab vs. redevelop cost numbers? Couldn’t any HUD number be
credibly disputed at that point? What if the activists presented 154
displaced families who were willing to fill up the available units, and
what if HUD was unable to come up with the 154 units that they claimed?
How would that look? How would the T-P look? Wouldn’t that be a
political winner?